Rob Saka, a University of Washington graduate, Air Force veteran and attorney who has worked for Microsoft and Meta, announced Tuesday that he is running for Seattle City Council.
Saka is seeking to represent District 1 and the neighborhoods of West Seattle and South Park. Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who first won in 2016, announced in December that she will not be seeking re-election. Maren Costa, a former Amazon worker who was fired for her climate activism, is also running in the district.
Saka calls himself a “non-native Seattle local,” who has lived in the region for a little over 15 years. He grew up in Minneapolis and spent the first nine years of his life in and out of the foster care system in the state of Minnesota. He credits his father, a Nigerian immigrant, with rescuing him from those circumstances at age 9.
‘Innovation is the heart and soul of what we do in tech. I aspire to bring that innovation mindset, the ability to think boldly and transformatively.’
— Rob Saka
Saka moved around a lot, attending 13 different K-12 schools growing up before eventually settling in Kent, Wash., where his father was a warehouse worker. They lived blocks away from the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center, a jail and courts building where some of Saka’s childhood friends were sentenced for crimes by judges whom he now calls his professional mentors in the legal community.
“That in part has inspired my journey to make sure that more people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who don’t have a voice and were forgotten about and disregarded, have the opportunity to achieve their true potential in life,” Saka said.
After graduating from high school, Saka enlisted in the Air Force after 9/11. He served 10 years and attended the UW and UC Law San Francisco thanks to the G.I. Bill. He ended up back in Seattle at the Perkins Coie law firm before spending four years as an in-house attorney at Microsoft. He’s now an associate general counsel for Facebook parent Meta, and his goal is to foster more public-private partnerships to take on issues facing the city, and attract the next wave of companies to Seattle.
“I want to make sure more companies of all sizes want to set up shop and do business here,” Saka said. “If they’re interested in helping contribute to the economy and create more jobs and a better experience for workers, oh, man, let’s roll up our sleeves and do this work.”
GeekWire caught up with Saka to discuss why he’s running for City Council, how his work in tech has shaped his viewpoint, what role tech companies can play in helping to fix the city’s problems, and more. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
GeekWire: Why are you running for Seattle City Council?
Rob Saka: I’m a father of three kids in public schools here. Simply put, I want a better future for them in this city, and kids like them across this city. I think there’s a real opportunity to make some real progress on issues like homelessness, public safety, and building affordable housing.
Another reason, frankly, I’m fed up with the dysfunction as usual in Seattle City Hall. I think there is an opportunity to better collaborate across differences, find common ground, and ultimately get stuff done that works, and works for all of us, not just a select few. I have 20-plus years doing exactly that, collaborating across differences, working towards a common goal, and ultimately achieving solutions for governments, for businesses and for communities. And I think that’s exactly what Seattle City Hall needs right now.
GW: How has your experience in the tech industry shaped your worldview and how you would lead in a council seat?
Saka: I’ve worked a lot with tech, companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500. But it hasn’t just been tech, I’ve been advising small businesses and representing small micro-entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds, helping them start and grow their businesses. Working in tech, I understand the importance of making data-driven decisions and being able to track and monitor progress on those decisions, and accountability and ownership for the outcomes of those decisions. I also understand the importance of simplifying and streamlining processes to ultimately drive scalability and extend the reach of whatever existing investment is in place. Innovation is the heart and soul of what we do in tech. I aspire to bring that innovation mindset, the ability to think boldly and transformatively.
GW: What role should the tech industry in Seattle play in helping to fix the city’s problems, some of which — such as affordability — can be attributed to the industry’s growth?
Saka: You shouldn’t have to be a lawyer or a doctor or a tech worker to live in this city. We need more frontline restaurant workers, and warehouse workers like my own father, and postmen, and grocery store workers, and artists, and we need more first responders. Some of that explosive growth has, in my view, contributed to some of the challenges that we’re facing now. Namely, the lack of affordable housing which relates to another problem of homelessness. The role that that tech plays to help address that, I look forward to working with any individual or organization that wants to be a part of this solution. I’m a firm believer in working across sectors, having robust public and private partnerships.
We shouldn’t just try and rationalize some of what happened. Now that we know the full impact of the good, the bad and the ugly of what growth can do, any decision that we make going forward is no longer unintended. So we need to be very deliberate, very thoughtful to make sure that we avoid some of those mistakes collectively as a society and as a government and even as organizations.
GW: Is there anything in the recent past while this growth was really taking off that maybe turned you off about the way the city was interacting with tech? Would you approach that in any other manner as a councilmember?
Saka: I never supported the head tax, and I was a little disappointed by that process and how that came about. I kind of view that as another well-intended idea that wasn’t workable. I intend to partner and collaborate closely with all organizations and individuals that want to be a part of fixing some of these really complex problems across the city. The head tax, I don’t think was part of that solution. The JumpStart tax, I think that was a better approach and I support that.
GW: What’s your view on remote work and how it’s impacting cities, specifically downtown? What can be done to “fix” downtown Seattle?
Saka: As a working parent of three whose spouse also works full time, I understand the value of hybrid work. I think organizations need to be fully empowered to set whatever hybrid or working-from-the-office policies that they think makes the most sense. I don’t intend to interfere with that as a Seattle City Council member.
I want to help revitalize downtown. We’re going to help by making sure the city is safer, for people that live in the city and also those that don’t live within the city’s boundaries, so that they feel comfortable enough to come downtown. Everyone deserves to live and work in a clean, safe and welcoming city. And we need to have a safer experience on our public transit system — there’s an opportunity to do better there as well.
GW: How important is it that Seattle remains attractive to businesses and tech companies?
Saka: Again, I will not take any person or organization that’s already a part of the city for granted. And I intend to work closely with organizations, including tech companies, to help make this city better because I know there are a lot of people at these tech companies that are interested in these public-private partnerships that I talked about.
Seattle is the cloud capital of the world, among other things, and companies including Meta and others have huge engineering hubs here. But Seattle is more than just a one-trick pony. I want to make sure more companies of all sizes want to set up shop and do business here. If they’re interested in helping contribute to the economy and create more jobs and a better experience for workers, oh, man, let’s roll up our sleeves and do this work.
